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In the event of an emergency, you should call 911.  If the issue is urgent, but not an emergency, and cannot wait until the next business day, you should call your primary care physician or go to an immediate care center or a local hospital emergency department.

Dr. Kramer does not provide emergency department care or inpatient hospitalization services.  If you are hospitalized, Dr. Kramer will work closely with your attending physician and arrange to provide any GI follow up care in his office after you are discharged from the hospital.

 All prescriptions and authorizations for renewals should be requested during office hours.  Refills and authorizations for renewals are typically handled within 24 hours.

**PLEASE NOTE:  All prescription renewals require that you have been seen by Dr. Kramer within the last 12 months.  If it has been a year or more since you were last seen, an office appointment will be required before a prescription will be refilled. 

You are encouraged to call with any questions that you have about your medical care.  These questions will be answered either by Dr. Kramer or his staff during the scheduled time to return calls.   

Since the onset of the COVID epidemic, the delivery and payment for healthcare providers has changed dramatically. Since social distancing has become a key component to controlling this viral disease, patients have been encouraged to limit close contacts with others. Patients, therefore, have complied by reducing or eliminating office appointments with their healthcare providers. 

Federal healthcare administrators have responded to the challenges of the epidemic by allowing care providers to provide medical care by telephone or audio-visual contacts as a substitute for in-person office appointments. As such, a new billing structure has been approved. 

Patients may, therefore, see charges submitted to their insurance carrier for services such as:

-Review of records

-Telehealth phone consultations

-Prescription refills

-Completion of health and disability forms

-Email telehealth communications, and

-ZOOM® audiovisual communications

NEW ALLOWABLE CHARGES

Code                  Medicare fee allowance                                 Description

GO2012                        $14.64                                                     5-10 minute care provider encounters such                  

                                                                                                        as phone calls or prescription refills

99213                           $91.32                                                     Office  or telehealth visit, 20 minutes  

99214                           $129.70                                                   Office or telehealth visit, 30+ minutes 

99215                           $181.61                                                   Office or telehealth visit, 40+ minutes 

Record reviews

In many instances, a patient’s medical problems cannot be fully understood without a comprehensive review of the patient’s records from other health care providers. These reviews include the following: previous office notes from other providers, physical exams, laboratory test results, imaging study reports, description of surgical procedures, dental records, analysis of dietary intake, temperature charts, blood pressure charts, blood sugar charts, review of medications both prescription drugs and non-prescription supplements taken by the patient, or other patient information.

These reviews may require a commitment of varying amounts of time and are, therefore, compensated differently. Examples include:

-99358 record review (31 to 75 minutes) Medicare allowable fee $111.91

(Additional time blocks over 75 minutes)

-99359 (76 to 104 minutes) Medicare allowable fee $53.50

-99359 (over 105 minutes) Medicare allowable fee $53.50

Medicare and other insurance companies periodically send summaries to patients showing the number of visits, dates of service, coding level of the care provided, and allowable charges that have been paid to Dr. Kramer. Some charges on these summaries may have a date of service reported that the patient may not recognize as the actual date of contact with Dr. Kramer. In most cases, these charges represent a review of records that took place before the patient made contact with Dr. Kramer and will have a 99358 and 99359 billing code. 

Please be sure to call the office if you have any questions. 

Our goal is to provide you with high quality medical care at an affordable price.  We feel, however, that it is your duty to know the limits and coverage of your particular policy.  Since we accept many insurance plans, we cannot know the specific guidelines of every patient's policy. You are expected to pay your portion of the charges at the time of service.

We will bill secondary insurance companies one time as a courtesy.  If no payment is received, you will be responsible for payment.

Accepted payment methods: 

Cash, Check, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and Americal Express